Kings of Leon - Because of The Times

9/10

A song like "Knocked Up" feels almost like a well written novella. The drums convey the feeling of a train moving steadily through a Florida thunderstorm at night while the lead guitar and the bass lay down the rain over the tracks ahead, then Nathan Followill executes a quick roll on the toms and thunder is cracking the sky overhead. Caleb mumbles in his hillbilly drawl "I don't care what nobody says we're gonna have a baby" and all I can see is a young man with a huge weight on his heart and a pretty young thing next to him rambling away from trouble the best they can.



This image seems very cliche and all so very "It's been done..." but that in and of itself is part of what makes the Kings of Leon a great band, especially on Because of The Times. This album is the third album from the Kings and thus is subject to the same intrinsic sense of fear that haunted the Strokes last album. The fact is that both of these bands had two excellent 1st and 2nd albums and awoke from their retro comas only to realize that musicians around them were making music with better production values and cleaner sounds. Whereas with the Strokes this effect sanitized the music and made it almost loveless the Kings manage to do the exact opposite trick. This record feels like the Pixies meet the Allman Brothers and they manage to keep the best elements of both while leaving behind the pitfalls that snared their contemporaries.

Ironically in this case the single from the album is hardly the best song. "On Call" has a certain charm after the first two or three listens, but so many of these songs are unexpectedly brilliant. "Charmer" for instance is a direct analog to any Pixies tune the bass line has Kim Deal written all over it and Caleb and Matthew do their best Joey Santiago impressions while Caleb embodies Black Francis' squealing howl. Imagining these boys playing this kind of material is frightening but they pull it off with absolute verve. The best part is the fact that every song seems bigger, more expansive and much more interesting, My Party has a fuzzed out bass line that would be perfect in your local indie dance club, and Black Thumbnail plays like they best Rolling Stones song you've never heard. Even when the album veers off into strange territory it still sounds fresh and innovative and doesn't seem to be reaching very far for inspiration. This album does what its predecessors couldn't, it keeps your itchy trigger finger away from the skip buttons and forces you to listen with rapt attention while inducing toe-tapping and spontaneous air-drumming.



The fact that this all seems to come so naturally to these guys is the really fascinating thing and makes me wonder what could be next. The one and only disappointment in this case is that these formerly hirsute boys are still maintaing their clean shaven faces, I mean these guys had the best facial hair in the biz and it is conspicuously missing, unlike Metallica however cutting their hair has not ruined the music.